Minister of Foreign Affairs Kęstutis Budrys Visits the Lithuanian State Historical Archives
On 11 September, Minister of Foreign Affairs Kęstutis Budrys visited the Lithuanian State Historical Archives. During his meeting with the Archives’ leadership, opportunities for cooperation in strengthening the protection, research and public accessibility of Lithuania’s documentary heritage were discussed.
Particular attention was paid to international projects that could contribute to the preservation and digitisation of Lithuanian historical sources, their return to Lithuania, and the development of scholarly research.
One of the key areas discussed was cooperation with Ukraine. The meeting addressed opportunities to develop joint research projects related to the study of the archival heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Plans were also presented to publish a joint periodical scholarly publication on the study of the archives of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania together with the M. Hrushevsky Institute of Archaeography of Ukraine.
The prospects for cooperation with Latvia were also discussed. The Latvian State Historical Archives hold numerous documents of significance to the history and statehood of Lithuania. Therefore, efforts are being made to jointly describe, study and digitise these documents.
The preservation of Lithuanian diaspora heritage in the United States is no less important. Discussions focused on opportunities to digitise the archive of the Lithuanian Alliance of America (SLA), the oldest Lithuanian organisation in the United States that is still active, to deposit digital copies of the archive in Lithuania, transcribe the documents, and create structured data on individuals mentioned in the archival records. The implementation of these plans could be strengthened through measures under the Global Lithuania Programme.
Prepared on the basis of information published on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.
Photographs by Jurijus Azanovas, photographer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
